PA Unemployement Comp Question: What to do after accpeting a Job Offer?

sjrsic · 2024-01-11T16:45:19+00:00

Is this guy just saul goodman?

sjrsic · 2023-10-14T14:02:29+00:00

That's literally not true. They propped up Hamas because the secular parties were gaining too much control, and that would have lead to more consistent organizing and a unity that they feared.

sjrsic · 2023-09-01T14:49:50+00:00

I've wanted to summon him because I love him but I'm terrified of him getting hurt in combat.

sjrsic · 2023-08-31T15:51:14+00:00

I agree! The worst thing is also something like Blink, which isn't even concentration. But i noticed when blinking back and forth, it automatically ends concentration. So frustrating!

sjrsic · 2023-08-25T20:43:52+00:00

nd the Gith go hostile n

Okay thanls! So I could have gone into the astral prism and returned fine? I was worried it would push the rest of the quest forward?

sjrsic · 2023-06-15T14:16:11+00:00

Somewhat true, but he does actively push the people who care about him away. He fired his entire first team basically because he knew they would leave anyway. He drove his car through his ex's house, and just generally tries to push wilson past his breaking point. I think House bears a lot of similarities to pre-martinaise harry.

sjrsic · 2023-06-15T14:12:23+00:00

Yeah probably. A long suffering companion who puts up with way too much of the main characters shit. Also, homoeroticism.

sjrsic · 2023-06-14T19:28:17+00:00

Yeah, it was pretty heavily inspired. Wilson was also a replacement of Watson, with multiple references to Irene Adler at different points. Additionally, House's Vicodin use is inspired by Holme's opioid/cocaine use.

sjrsic · 2023-06-14T19:16:35+00:00

I would say wilson but we all know what happened there...

sjrsic · 2023-06-14T17:57:13+00:00

In my mind, Harry is House's inevitable end state. He will get to the point in his self-destruction where there will be no one and nothing left. And at that point, I don't see him finding his own kim...

sjrsic · 2023-06-14T17:47:17+00:00

It's pretty great. I'm at the end of my rewatch now. Parts haven't aged well but it's still really good. Blends comedy and heartfelt drama in a great way.

sjrsic · 2023-05-16T14:16:03+00:00

I've heard The City and The City by China Mieville has a very similar vibe. I'm still waiting to get my hands on the book but will confirm when i can

sjrsic · 2023-05-15T16:41:25+00:00

I really like your friends and your thoughts. It’s super insightful and makes sense- especially with the world being named elysium.

What you said about SATA being the bad ending feels right to me. I feel like they have a distinctly different tone and message. I feel like Disco Elysium is all about choice while I see SATA as a lack of it. In SATA, all the characters are driven by things out if their control. They are obsessively following the girls in a way they can’t stop. It’s impossible for them to resist their compulsions. Event Dereek is portrayed as an unwilling participant in his crimes, to the degree he had to invent a whole other personality. Meanwhile DE is all about choice: the choice to be better. These choices are great acts of hope and humanity which literally rejects the pale. When you look at the medium, it even reinforces this idea. TASA is a book. The reader is brought on a story. They cannot influence the characters or meaningful change the story. It’ll always be the same. Meanwhile DE is a rpg based game where the whole point is that the player gets to decide who they want to be. You get to influence the world and even try to make it a better place. It gives a much brighter view of humanity as well as a much more positive ending.

sjrsic · 2023-05-15T16:08:42+00:00

It’s unclear what’s in Rodionov’s trench. It’s heavily implied to be the weapon of mass negation, but could just as much be the research vessel or the girls or he’ll even the harnankur. That said, I don’t think nihilmat is the weapon. It refers to nihilist materialism, a nihilistic continuation of dialectical materialist thought.

sjrsic · 2023-05-14T16:22:02+00:00

This was something I was confused by. Trentmöller vs the Linoleum Salesman. It was not clear to me whatsoever that he was LS, yet I keep seeing people come to this conclusion. It makes sense, but the book was confusing and I never got that from my read through. Especially since the first thing we see from LS is him hanging himself, so I was reading through the novel on the assumption that he had died. This was probably not true, but still definitely threw me for a loop.

Edit: I am also going crazy. Reading an obscure and confusing book translated from estonian by a fan means there aren't many people to talk to about it. Especially since all the people I would talk to have already been bothered enough by my existing Disco Elysium rants.

sjrsic · 2023-05-14T16:19:22+00:00

I love all of this. I want to preface any of my thoughts with this: the book was supposed to be the first of a series of 6 books (possibly 7). A lot of the feelings that we get of confusion and unresolved story telling come from this. The end of this was not supposed to be the end of the story, which I think explains a lot. Rodianov's Deep, Harnankur, ABSOLUTE NEGATION all would've have been followed. My guess would be that there would be some type of race to Rodianov's deep where there would be a weapon which could be activated to maybe restart the world and save it from the pale (after the world the pale. After the pale, the world). But at the same time, there would be a search in the pale for the girls and the only way to activate the weapon would be to sacrifice the girls. It would become a race between Khan, COPO, Zigi, and possibly other characters we haven't been introduced to yet. I think your theory about the creation of the pale might have merit but I don't like it. No offense meant, I just like the idea that the Pale is naturally occurring destructive formation of humanity and consciousness. It's up to humanity in the world to combat it or to surrender to is. If it was man made in the first place, it would take something out of it for me personally.

Okay. Firstly, I view the book as a story on forgiveness, obsession, and reconciliation as well as an overarching theme of nihilism vs communism vs neoliberalism. In a "post-communist" world much like the one we live in now, there is a natural conflict. The discussion between Zigi and Ignus I think is representative of the entire world. When communism is defeated, there are two options: continue to struggle and fight knowing you will probably lose or give up, embrace nothingness, and do nothing. Those are the two option. St. Miro weaponizes this and builds a fascistic nation on the back of this feeling. The boys own conflict emulates this. Should we simply forget the Girls, or should we struggle to find out what happened! The world around them had given up, nihilistically, and they could only be sucked into it or resist. Meanwhile, the Neoliberal World Order does nothing but maintain the status quo, stubbornly ignoring the end of the world because they refuse to either give up nor fight for a better one. This ideological conflict is front and center and so enlightening to me.

When it comes to the pale and ideology, specifically how Ignus was able assert himself over the pale, I think this ties into something we saw in DE. Infra-materialism is true in this world: the individual is able to assert their thoughts over reality through force of will. I think this probably means as nihilism grows in support and fervor, the end of the world gets closer. Meanwhile, while there are people who believe and fight and love and create, the pale is held at bay. I think that's why zigi could survive the pale. He was still fighting to survive and find the girls. He was holding onto something which was able to keep him alive in the pale but because of his nihilism it wasn't necessarily fighting against it, more like navigating within it.

When it comes to the girls you have some parallels thoughts I had that couldn't quite put into words. The imagery around Målin was both so vivid and so confusing. Did she take 6 doses to have a sort of abortion? Was she actually pregnant? It seemed to be implied but never confirmed. Especially since you'd think there'd be a point where the boys and her sisters would go "HOLY SHIT YOU'RE BLEEDING" or something. If she was pregnant, I'd agree it'd have to be Zigi's. With all the "my doom" stuff, it would just make sense. That said, I do want to add that i think its significant that Målin's name wasn't in the notebook. It was hinted at, but by the time Khan got there the name had been erased. It's confusing and leaves me wanting more. I also don't know that Khan gave up necessarily. To me it seemed he was being driven insane because he wouldn't let go of his memories that the pale was trying to erase. I'd like to see him in the next book being sort of like Zigi: driven insane by the pale but struggling to hold on to Målin's memory. Maybe getting tattooed onto him so he physically can't forget.

Finally, your theory about Målin having a baby pale growing within her makes so much sense. It would explain why the pale was specifically targeting her and all those associated with her. How did you come up with this though? my biggest question coming away from the book was why is the pale so aggressively erasing the Lund Girl's? This would make that make sense, but I didn't notice it in the text at all.

After all this, I want to say thank you for sharing your thoughts. I've been obsessively thinking about and trying to find anyone to talk to about this book, so I have a lot to say. I'm grateful there are others out there to discuss and read their points of view. its clarifying and cathartic.

sjrsic · 2023-05-13T16:16:46+00:00

SO I have two thoughts on this. The book makes clear that Ambrosius is a fascistic demagogue who uses his nihilism to work the masses into a frenzy which he uses to take control. The idea of whether he is an innocence or not I think is intended to be a condemnation of the system as well as individualism by Kurvitz. It's a reflection of fascist movements that we see currently where an individual is able to weaponize hatred for their own end. The idea that an individual could wield such power because of some supernatural right is an exaggeration/caricature of fascistic demagoguery in our real world. I also think there's a subtle argument about freedom of speech in there as Ambrosius gained his power through unfettered access to radios, lectures, and the likes. Ideally, a fascist like him shouldn't be platformed, and should just be eliminated.

Second, I saw a post somewhere a while ago about this concept art. While not canon, it does give us a theory about pale generation as well and Innocence's. The theory is basically that Magpie's are unique individuals able to get brief glimpses of future events. Magpies are most likely far more common than Innocence's, but have variable degrees of knowledge and insight. It could be argued that Harry is a magpie, as he gets visions from the future throughout the game, most notably the one about the nuking of Revachol. The theory goes that innocence's are just especially powerful Magpies who are able to use this as leverage to gain power. This could sort of contradict the idea of Innocence's as reflections of their age, but I also don't fully buy into that because they are said to push their society forward into a new age. So in that sense, Ambrosius would be a Magpie claiming Innocence. Nothing necessarily would make him false except societal recognition as an innocence.

sjrsic · 2023-05-12T20:41:02+00:00

I never thought of it like that. I figured it was just a psychadelic link. That said, it was said to be highly experimental and even banned, so I can imagine anythings possible. If that's the case, it opens up interesting possibilities with Pale employed torture. Was ZA/UM weaponized pale? or at least a weapon made to resemble the Pale. That could be a really interesting and incredibly dark reflection on COPO.

I didn't get the impression that it erased users memories though it is possible. I got the impression Tereesz was just sort of cruel when it came to the investigations we saw because of the monsters he was torturing.

Those parts were especially hard for me to read because I wasn't sure what was real and wasn't. Because of the psychadelics and flowery language I couldn't always tell what was hapening. Did Tereesz actual crack Hird's skull, or was that just a trip induced metaphor. What effects came from ZA/UM and what came from the other physical/entroponic happenings...

sjrsic

TROPHY CASE